Gorilla Glass a Reason to 'Buy' Corning?

Shares of Gorilla Glass maker Corning (GLW) climbed about 1% Monday morning after the telecom equipment maker was handed upgrades on the heels of two upbeat analyst notes.

Barclays (BCS) lifted Corning to “overweight” from “equalweight,” while Morgan Stanley (MS) raised the maker of display technologies to “equalweight” from “underweight.”

Morgan Stanley raised its 2013 outlook on Corning’s Gorilla Glass sales to $1.37 billion, which would mark a 31% year-over-year improvement from the 2012 period as smartphone sizes creep higher and touch notebook sales improve. The extra-tough glass is used by Samsung for its popular suite of Galaxy devices.

The brokerage calls it a "risk-reward view," noting: "Touch notebooks lift Gorilla demand in 2013, but the display business continues to shrink with a 2015 reset on the Yen hedges rolling off."